Sleeper Cells

This is scary:


Al-Qaeda Sleeper has a Warning for You

"A warning has come from the man that joined al-Qaeda and worked his way close enough to the big shots to help us take out Anwar Al-Awlaki, the heir apparent to Osama bin Laden. The former motorcycle gangster who joined Al Qaeda, only to become a double agent claims to have helped the U.S. hunt down one of the terrorist organization’s top leaders, said this week’s attacks in Paris prove that sleeper cells are positioned around the west, ready to carry out fresh attacks.

The terrorists work to be unnoticeable, Deception is their warfare, in a phone interview conducted by U.S. based terrorism research group Clarion Project. One of the things that these groups believe in is that you are allowed to trick someone into believing that you stand for something else when you really have other agendas. This is supported by the Koran and their clerics. They act as normal members of western society."

[---]

"The man, Morten Storm, was an informant for Denmark’s national intelligence agency Security and Intelligence Service (PET), and as such had first-hand dealings with Anwar Al-Awlaki while the U.S.-born cleric was head of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Storm said western countries must protect themselves by canceling the citizenship of homegrown radicals who travel to the Middle East to fight or train. Once radicalized, homegrown jihadists can easily blend into society until given the signal to strike."

Quelle Surprize!

11 Terrorists With Links to Al-Qaeda Arrested for Disappearance of Flight #MH370

Original story here.

Hummm

That's not what the Western media is telling us:

Taliban commander: We can’t win Afghanistan war

"One of the most senior Taliban commanders has admitted that it is unlikely the insurgents can win the war in Afghanistan, according to an interview published by Britain's New Statesman magazine."

[---]

""It would take some kind of divine intervention for the Taliban to win this war," the commander, who is referred to only as Mawlvi (mullah) tells Semple, according to excerpts of the interview on the magazine's website. "The Taliban capturing Kabul is a very distant prospect.""

[---]

""At least 70% of the Taliban are angry at al-Qaida," Mawlvi is quoted as saying. "Our people consider al-Qaida to be a plague that was sent down to us by the heavens. To tell the truth, I was relieved at the death of Osama.

Through his policies, he destroyed Afghanistan. If he really believed in jihad he should have gone to Saudi Arabia and done jihad there, rather than wrecking our country.""

[---]

""Any Taliban leader expecting to be able to capture Kabul is making a grave mistake. Nevertheless, the leadership also knows that it cannot afford to acknowledge this weakness.

To do so would undermine the morale of Taliban personnel. The leadership knows the truth — that they cannot prevail over the power they confront.""

Good thing India's press has English language websites. We'd never know stuff like this, otherwise.

BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Documents reveal al Qaeda's plans for seizing cruise ships, carnage in Europe

"On May 16 last year, a 22-year-old Austrian named Maqsood Lodin was being questioned by police in Berlin. He had recently returned from Pakistan via Budapest, Hungary, and then traveled overland to Germany. His interrogators were surprised to find that hidden in his underpants were a digital storage device and memory cards. Buried inside them was a pornographic video called "Kick Ass" -- and a file marked "Sexy Tanja.""

So that's how they recruit them. Porn Found in Osama Bin Laden Evidence Trove

"...the pornographic material was found in a wooden box in bin Laden's bedroom..."

Well, someone has to review, evaluate and select the material. It's a dirty job, but....

"American-Like" Musings

After reading American Myths: What Canadians think they know about America and having a bit of a conversation in the comments attached to a previous entry, I decided to pick up another book that I acquired along the way: The History of American Wars: From Colonial Times to World War 1 by T Harry Williams.

(I'm a compulsive book buyer. At least 2/3 of the books I own are still waiting for me to read them. One of the best places to buy books is at public library book sales. They periodically try to dispose of books that no one is borrowing or reading any more, and they go really, really cheaply.)

But anyway, back to my musings. On the top of page 22 of this tome are the following two paragraphs, in reference to what is known as The Seven Years War, or, in America-speak, The French and Indian War (Emphasis mine):

"Because it was a new kind of war and because the Americans were a new people and not as bound as Europeans by old rules, the conduct of the war departed in significant ways from the eighteenth-century pattern. This was most apparent in the American's disregard of accepted rules of war, in part a legacy of their experience with the Indians [Ed. who broke all the rules, or rather, didn't know such rules existed and would probably have laughed at them anyway and maybe did.]. They occasionally embarked on winter campaigns, at the time a practice almost unheard of -- partially because of the logistical difficulties involved but also because by the prevailing leisurely standards there was no need to fight in disagreeable weather.

The Americans performed in ways the British considered savage or treacherous. Their riflemen aimed at and shot officers, who as gentlemen were not be be fired at deliberately, a least not by common soldiers. A British officer stigmatized this American practice as showing a lack of "modern good breeding." [Ed. Maybe therein lies the source of Canadian anti-Americanism. Pretentious notions about superior "breeding". LOL!] Americans often resorted to unprecedented trickery. At the battle of Bennington a rebel militia force opposed British regulars who had been joined by Loyalist militia of the area. Neither militia group was in uniform, of course, but each wore distinguishing rosettes. A body of patriot militia fashioned Loyalist rosettes and infiltrated the British flanks and rear and from these vantage points poured in a devastating fire when the battle was joined. The result was a slaughter of the British and a shocking blow to feudal notions of honor in war."

Okay. What's the point of quoting these passages here? Well, quite simply, war tactics change over time. The pre-revolutionary wars, at least in Europe, were fought on open fields with lines of soldiers facing each other, picking each other off. It's a scene more likely to cause laughter today.

Likewise, our obsession with the Geneva Conventions and with modern "rules of war" may be our undoing. While it's perhaps not necessary to dispense with all of that good stuff, it may be helpful to understand that these conventions and rules were crafted based on, what was then recent, war-time experiences.

Terrorists and their sponsoring states do not play by those rules. To win, we must not delude ourselves into thinking that we are superior (of superior breeding) if we don't stoop to their level. Military innovation is often what gives the winning side the advantage. And that innovation appears in more than just the hardware used on battlefields or in the air. It also appears in rules and customs of combat. I mean, really, why wouldn't or shouldn't officers be shot? So too, why shouldn't captured terrorists be subjected to waterboarding, to name just two examples. If someone can release a worm like Stuxnet and cripple Iran's nuclear program, you know the conduct of war has evolved. And if a drone can eliminate in one shot three big al-Qaeda ringleaders, then hallelujah!

Don't, Whatever You Do,....

UPDATE: Awlaki not the only one.

"Two US officials say the drone strike in Yemen that killed Anward al-Awlaki appears to have also killed al-Qaida's top Saudi bomb-maker.

Officials say intelligence indicates Ibrahim al-Asiri also died in the attack. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the death has not been officially confirmed.

Al-Asiri is the bomb-maker believed to have made the explosives used in the foiled Christmas Day airline attack in 2009 and last year's attempted cargo plane bombing.

Al-Asiri's death would make the attack perhaps the most successful single drone strike ever."

If it's true.
=====Original Post Starts Here=====
...delude yourself into thinking this war against Islamism is "near the tipping point" just because al-Qaeda may be.

With the death of Awlaki, Al-Qaeda nears its tipping point

Still, this is a major victory for Western Civilization. Al Qaeda has been on the run and taking many hits where it hurts for some time. They are going to find recruitment getting harder and harder. But there are lots of other Islamist organizations out there and one thing they all seem to have plenty of is exemplary strategists.

I wonder if (and if so, when) we'll see Pakistan turn on the ones in their midst.

Our leftards do not want us to know that we're winning, either. It means they've lost.

Twapp! Bang! Plop!....

...Zap!

"U.S. officials said Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S.-born cleric linked to al Qaeda's Yemen-based wing, was killed in a CIA drone strike on Friday.

U.S. and Yemeni officials said they also believed a second English-speaking Qaeda operative, Samir Khan, was killed at the same time, although this was not 100 percent confirmed. One U.S. official said Khan was editor of "Inspire," a magazine-style publication which had become al Qaeda's principal English-language propaganda vehicle."

[---]

""Awlaki's demise deals a decisive blow to al-Qaeda in Yemen. This was a terrorist who wasn't simply a propagandist, but over the years had become an operational figure who was increasingly focused on planning and carrying out attacks against the United States and our allies," a senior U.S. defense official said. "A very bad man just had a very bad day.""

They're starting to look like flies. The message must be pretty sobering.

Oh, yeah, and George Bush's policy is working. "If you're not with us, you are with the terrorists." Yemen understands what that means.

We're Getting Smart

First there was Stuxnet and now this.

Waiting for CBC to Report This

Canada on bin Laden's list of targets, again.

"The Sunday Telegraph has learned that Britain was one of six countries – along with the US, Canada, Israel, Germany and Spain – identified as a target for terror strikes in the intelligence haul. Officials did not disclose specific plots or threats."

h/t BCF

"As US and European domestic security officials step up counter-terror operations amid concerns of a "lone wolf" or terror cell revenge attacks to avenge bin Laden's killing, Pakistan's intelligence services have withdrawn co-operation with their American counterparts.

Agents with the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) directorate are refusing to share details of suspects or plots in protest at the US operation to kill bin Laden, raising the potential threat of attacks on Western cities."

I say it's time we dropped a few bombs on some capital cities in the Muslim world. Or hot bacon grease. CBC would report that, I'm sure.

Why I Am Not....

...a practicing Christian.

BWHAHAHAHAHAHA!

I guess he hadn't put the porn videos into the VCR yet.

OSAMA Bin Laden was shot dead wearing just his underpants, a US senator revealed yesterday.

Timing was a bit off, but other than that....

PS: Read the comments at Rantburg. BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!

And the Answer Is...(drum roll).....Fish Food!!!

Why did they bury bin Laden at sea?

"The decision to dispose of the body at sea, experts say, came out of a concern that a gravesite might become a shrine to the terrorist who masterminded the 9/11 attacks. Besides, U.S. officials said, no country seemed eager to become the final resting place for bin Laden’s remains. Even his native Saudi Arabia is reported to have refused to accept what was left of him.

And though the decision to dispose of him at sea was dictated by pragmatism, according to the official narrative, the burial did not neglect cultural sensitivity. Though Muslims usually lay their dead to rest in the ground with the head pointed toward the holy city of Mecca, U.S. officials say that bin Laden’s body was washed and shrouded according to the Islamic rite, and the burial occurred less than 24 hours after death, as prescribed by tradition.

Yet toeing the line between practicality and political correctness has landed the White House at the centre of criticism. Soon after details of the burial began circulating, a slew of Muslim clerics and scholars were shaking their heads in disapproval. A burial at sea “runs contrary to the principles of Islamic laws, religious values and humanitarian customs,” said Sheik Ahmed al-Tayeb, the grand imam of Cairo’s al-Azhar mosque. Others rejected the notion, circulating on several Western news outlets, that a Muslim’s burial at sea is acceptable in extraordinary circumstances, and the Obama administration’s inability to find a country to take bin Laden’s remains constituted one of those exceptions. That isn’t the case, said Mohammed al-Qubaisi, Dubai’s grand mufti. Some even warned that the handling of bin Laden’s body is an insult to Muslims, and could possibly be grounds for retaliation against American targets."

BULL!! SHIT!!

Any excuse will do, and it matters not how they handled the old psychopathic one's remains, the good Islamist will use it as an excuse to foment more anger and lust for vengeance.

"A Facebook page called “Osama bin Laden NOT DEAD” launched almost immediately, and now counts 925 registered fans."

I wonder how many of those fans could tell us why the sea he was dumped into is called the Arabian Sea? Or what happened to Arab traders who died at sea from the days of the formation of the Arab/Islamic empire to its height and eventual decline or why the Arabs themselves called it the Indian Sea, a land far away by Medieval standards, and difficult to reach overland, or for how many centuries before Mohammed the Arab trader plied these waters? Do those fans know about Ibn Battuta, the Arab Marco Polo, and his sea voyages along the East African coast? Are they aware that even the great Chinese explorer, Cheng Ho, who sailed the eastern seas long before Columbus and Magellan, was a Muslim?

What a crock!!

And please don't even attempt to pretend that sea-faring travelers and traders in the Middle Ages didn't encounter, die from, take advantage of and spread deadly diseases from port to port or would sometimes, when not at port, have to throw human remains over-board. You know, there was this thing about fleas and rats and ships and disease.

As someone in the comments at the first link at the top of this entry said:

"Someone should write a book on what insults muslims... oh wait that would be 1000 pages long, maybe it's easier to write one on what isn't an insult to muslims."

Enough, thank you. If you can't shut up, I wish the MSM would at least quit giving you above the fold exposure. But I'm not holding my breath. If it wasn't for that fact that communicable diseases neither respect political borders, nor recognize nor distinguish between idiocy and insightful analysis, I would wish a pox on Dar al-Islam.

“If you see it, shoot it. It is a house full of bad guys.”

A fascinating account of the intelligence and maneuvers of the Navy SEALs' bin Laden operation:

"The main three-story building, which had no telephone lines or Internet service, was impenetrable to eavesdropping technology deployed by the National Security Agency.

U.S. officials were stunned to realize that whenever Kuwaiti or others left the compound to make a call, they drove some 90 minutes away before even placing a battery in a cellphone. Turning on the phone made it susceptible to the kind of electronic surveillance that the residents of the compound clearly wished to avoid."

RTWT

Hopefully, Obama and His Team...

...read Ace of Spades HQ.

Hmmmmmm

"The assault force of Navy SEALs snatched a trove of computer drives and disks during their weekend raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound, yielding what a U.S. official called “the mother lode of intelligence.”"

I wonder what they'll find?

At any rate, the news was met with so much shoulder shrugging in the Arab world. It's good riddance to bad rubbish, I guess.

Al Qaeda on the ropes? Little Arab outrage over Osama bin Laden's death

I've Been Thinking...

UPDATE: Oh, I should add, too, that it would be good if he was alive when they pitched him out of the aircraft. Essential, in fact.
==================================
...dangerous as that is, but what if bin Laden was alive when they threw him to the sharks? Seems from the evidence at the compound that there might have been lots of blood smeared all over him. Enough to draw the sharks in from miles away.

Shark food. Think about it. Wouldn't that have been the perfect ending to his life?

Maybe they'll make a movie someday and use this ending. Better make sure I get my cut.

Interesting Article

The title says it all:

How Al Qaeda Was Destroyed From Within

Remember the Leftie Meme

...about how the US made Osama Bin Laden because they assisted the Taliban in fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan? It was a stretch, I know, but what are lefties to do when all they have is the garbage poured into their heads by liberal arts professors? You know. Garbage in. Garbage out.

Anywho, this is an interesting article:

Karzai, Kayani hold talks on Taliban, border security

Among other things of interest there is this passage:

"Pakistan was suspected of covertly supporting the Taliban despite being an ally of the United States in the fight against terrorism.

Its intelligence agencies exercise influence on the militants, whom they nurtured during their struggle against Soviet forces in the 1980s."

But, but, but....wait a minute....

A Big One Bites the Dust

Al Qaeda # 3 Killed

"Osama bin Laden and Ayman al Zawahiri are the spiritual founders, and considered No. 1 and No. 2 of al Qaeda list, but Shaikh Sa’id is considered the link between those two and rest of the operation, and for all intents and purposes the one running the organization day to day.

"Al-Masri was the group's chief operating officer,” the official said, “with a hand in everything from finances to operational planning. He was also the organization's prime conduit to Bin Ladin and Zawahiri. He was key to al-Qaeda's command and control.”"

[---]

"The official said Shaikh Sa’id's "death would be a major blow to al-Qaeda, which in December lost both its internal and external operations chiefs." (A reference to the killings of Abdullah Said and Saleh al-Somali, respectively.)

"Though these terrorists remain extremely dangerous and determined to strike at the United States, the removal from the battlefield of top leaders like al-Masri is further proof that the tribal areas are not quite the safe haven al-Qaeda and its allies thought them to be," the official said."

Al Qaeda-Saddam Hussein Pre-war Ties Revisited

A Master Terrorist's First Days in Bahgdad

With the death of "Abu Ayyub al Masri (aka Abu Hamzah al-Muhajir, the military leader of al Qaeda in Iraq) and Hamid Dawud Muhammad Khalil al Zawi (aka Abu Umar al-Baghdadi, the overall leader of AQI)", the Weekly Standard's Thomas Joscelyn takes another look at the links between the Ba'athist regime and al Qaeda.

"...here is one fact the press is not likely to trumpet: Abu Ayyub al Masri set up shop in Saddam’s Iraq roughly ten months prior to the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. His presence there was tracked by the CIA. The agency was even concerned that al Masri and his al Qaeda compatriots might be planning terrorist attacks outside of Iraq from Baghdad."

[---]

"(George) Tenet writes: "...by the spring and summer of 2002, more than a dozen al-Qa’ida-affiliated extremists converged on Baghdad, with apparently no harassment on the part of the Iraqi government. They had found a comfortable and secure environment in which they moved people and supplies to support Zarqawi’s operations in northeastern Iraq.

Among the al Qaeda operatives who moved to Baghdad in May 2002 was an Egyptian named Yussef al Dardiri. As The Washington Post first reported, Yussef al Dardiri is Abu Ayyub al Masri’s real name."

[---]

"Saddam’s Baghdad was a neo-Stalinist capital, and it is difficult to believe that al Qaeda terrorists would set up shop there, coordinate their activities with other al Qaeda terrorists in northeastern Iraq, and engage in a variety of other activities without Saddam knowing it. One important al Qaeda terrorist was even briefly detained in Baghdad during this period, but Saddam ordered him released.

At a minimum, Tenet’s testimony rebuts one of the more prevalent Iraq war myths – that there were no al Qaeda terrorists present in Saddam’s Iraq until the American invasion opened the door for them.

There is more to this story than Tenet lets on.

For example, there is evidence that Saddam actively fostered al Qaeda’s presence on Iraqi soil. In Abdel Bari Atwan's The Secret History of al Qaeda, Dr. Muhammad al Masri (a known al Qaeda mouthpiece) and Baathist sources explain that Saddam funded the relocation of al Qaeda operatives to Iraq “with the proviso that they would not undermine his regime.” Saddam also sent “messengers to buy small plots of land from farmers in Sunni areas” and “[i]n the middle of the night soldiers would bury arms and money caches for later use by the resistance.”

Dr. al Masri told Atwan that Iraqi army commanders “were ordered to become practicing Muslims and to adopt the language and spirit of the jihadis.” When al Qaeda operatives arrived in Iraq, they “were put in touch with these commanders, who later facilitated the distribution of arms and money from Saddam’s caches.”

From this vantage point, it is not surprising that the places where Saddam’s regime was strongest ended up hosting al Qaeda. Abu Ayyub al Masri himself was killed not far from Saddam’s hometown of Tikrit.

There is additional evidence that Saddam called for terrorists throughout the region to relocate to Iraqi soil. And, in February 2003, Osama bin Laden himself called on Muslims to fight alongside Saddam Hussein’s forces. Saddam and his regime were “infidel” socialists, bin Laden said. But they were better than the Americans. “There is nothing wrong with a convergence of interests here,” bin Laden argued.

There are deeper ties here as well. Abu Ayyub al Masri was a member of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ), which Ayman al Zawahiri led since the 1980s. The EIJ’s cooperation and eventual merger with al Qaeda provided Osama bin Laden with much of the muscle and tactical capabilities his organization needed to blossom into an international terrorist threat. Zawahiri also influenced bin Laden in profound ways, crucially contributing to the terror master’s plans for creating an international jihadist coalition.

Zawahiri always found utility in cooperating with rogue states when it suited his interests. For instance, the 9/11 Commission found that Zawahiri “had ties of his own” to Saddam’s regime.

Iraqi Intelligence documents discovered in post-Saddam Iraq provided additional context to the 9/11 Commission’s finding. One document, in particular, notes that Saddam’s intelligence services and Zawahiri’s EIJ agreed to cooperate in operations targeting Zawahiri’s long-time enemy: Hosni Mubarak’s regime in Egypt.

Abu Ayyub al Masri was one of Ayman al Zawahiri’s longest-serving lieutenants. Zawahiri found it convenient to cooperate with Saddam on occasion.

Lo and behold, we find that Abu Ayyub and other senior EIJ members relocated to Saddam’s Baghdad in 2002. And Abu Ayyub had plotted terror inside Iraq ever since."

Now, put all that together with what we know about an Iraqi ambassador to the Vatican and his trip to Niger in February, 1999.